send me your cage instead, and when I can buy myself one I'll send yours back, full of rats!

I would love to do that, especially the "full of rats" part, but my niece is now using the cage for her ferret as Ashley and Mae have gone to the Bridge.

I searched everywhere for a suitable cage for my rats, and found none. I did buy a large bird cage before finally get the Martin's cage. The bird cage cost MORE and was not suitable, due to small doors and other features that weren't good for rats.

The Martin's cage would cost you less than buying anything of comparable size here, and is very much worth it!:)

Or you can do what SisMorphine mentioned. Take a look at the Rat Grotto on Google. It's fabulous and you could make it rather cheaply.

I know pL. But I'm on a rough patch, I have a hard time buying all the expensive organic composants for the Suebee's rat mix, so the cage will have to wait. I'm changing jobs, and I've had rough winter months money-wise, it's all hitting me right now.

As my mom liked to say, we're not rich but we're doing all right!

And the rats end up in my bookcase anyway, no need to build a grotto, chewing on my books is much more fun!

I have a hard time buying all the expensive organic composants for the Suebee's rat mix,

I never bought the more expensive ingredients for that mix. I made my own, and mixed it with prepared rat food from the pet store.

I supplemented that with my own food and gave them whatever I was eating.

Sometimes for breakfast, they would have toast and cereal with bananas, or scrambled eggs and toast with peanut butter. They ate better than I did!!!

I miss them more, talking about them. So cute the way they would charge up to the cage door and snatch the bananas out of my fingers then sit there eating it and turning it around in their little pink hands....sniff.....

Oh, they get table food too but they also have nutri-blocks in the morning, and Suebee's at night. They LOOOVE toast with peanut butter and bananas, and pears, and cheddar... Those buggers will eat almost anything you give them...

The pink hands are a hit here too, even my boyfriend who can't enjoy animals who eat meals where they poop *litterbox* likes it when they eat and groom.

RIP little Koko (died after a false pregnancy and spending the night silently giving birth to nothing . . . thus I awake in the morning to find her with a prolapsed uterus and rectum . . . had to be PTSed) and Cattia (taken by Myco).

I will never again have female rats (the spay is too invasive for such a tiny creature, I worry, and after living through Koko's end I don't EVER want to be in that position again). And I will only get rats that come certified free of Myco. I am being selfish this time around. Their lives aren't long enough to crap shoot anymore

"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." -Anatole France

Some things are worse than myco... I've had a foster come in with an ear infection, she was on antibiotics... She required cleaning and pushing out solid pus twice a day. Once we went to the vet with her, he pulled out 1 CC of pus out of there. She went downhill after that and we had to put her to sleep. That's only a 2 week span. She was DeeDee's mom.

I understand what you mean by spay is too invasive for them, but in some cases it's necessary -repeated mammary tumors, by example. I've never done it, though. Right now I have more boys than girls, the intact boys are NEVER in contact with the intact girls, especially that it's their mom and sister. Eww.

RIP little Koko (died after a false pregnancy and spending the night silently giving birth to nothing . . . thus I awake in the morning to find her with a prolapsed uterus and rectum

So sorry....how very awful.

I had Ashley neutered. Had to protect the girls, you know!

The risk from spaying is, I feel, less than the risk of tumours and if I have another girl, I will spay her. I have a GREAT exotic vet. He charges a fortune, but gives wonderful care and really loves rats.

Call2arms has seen this, but here is my Alvis who spent his whole 2 years life in an empty 10gal tank at a petstore as a "breeder". He was on sale for .99 since he was no longer useful. I hated the thought of going for snake food, so bought him. I adored him.

I agree, spaying is necessary . . . which is why I will only ever own males.

Currently I'm in a debate as to whether or not to neuter the boys I get next. I had my last male neutered and he wasn't as "leaky" plus the non-rat folks weren't as skeeved without the rattie torpedos dragging around behind them. Plus I just figured that it would have health benefits, as it does for dogs. But now the breeder is saying that she prefers her males to NOT be neutered because it does not have the same health effects as spaying does on a female. Ugh. I just don't know. If the "no neutering unless necessary" clause is in the contract obviously I'll have to go by it, but if not I just don't know what to do now . . .

"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." -Anatole France

call2arms wrote:I know pL. But I'm on a rough patch, I have a hard time buying all the expensive organic composants for the Suebee's rat mix, so the cage will have to wait. I'm changing jobs, and I've had rough winter months money-wise, it's all hitting me right now.

As my mom liked to say, we're not rich but we're doing all right!

And the rats end up in my bookcase anyway, no need to build a grotto, chewing on my books is much more fun!

Crap! I have a ferret cage much like pLaurent's that I'm not using. You can have it but you are so far away.
I love ferrets but I don't plan on getting any more. They are cute but stinky

If you don't mind how it looks, could you build one? My husband just built an awesome cage for my chickens, 6x4x3 feet, out of 2x3s and hardware cloth. You could build ledges and such for them and hang stuff from the hardware cloth. it isn't pretty, but it is practically bomb proof, which is good because we just lost 5 to a f*in' weasel.

My husband just built an awesome cage for my chickens, 6x4x3 feet, out of 2x3s and hardware cloth

Rats could chew hardware cloth and wood and would need something more sturdy, which is why homemade cages for them are little more difficult to construct.

Currently I'm in a debate as to whether or not to neuter the boys I get next.

Not much need to neuter the boys unless they become very aggressive to each other, which happens seldom. Some people feel it may reduce the incidence of tumours in males, but the jury seems to be out on that one.